


I put some vinegar in your tea

by tooyoungtoknow



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:27:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29152758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tooyoungtoknow/pseuds/tooyoungtoknow
Summary: L strikes a deal with a god of death to save the life of a murderer. According to the deal he has to provide the god with entertainment for the rest of his life, but he gets to keep the murderer.
Relationships: A late-night conversation, L not being sneaky enough, L/Yagami Light, Light being petty, Yours truly is proud of this little piece, an extremely annoying hotel pillow
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41





	I put some vinegar in your tea

He held the hand in his own and kissed the palm. It was warm, and he felt it tremble against his lips. He curled its fingers inward, as if to keep the memory there.

"You were upset with me today."

The pillow under his head was a little too soft for his liking. It was filled with real feathers and he heard it rustling every time he moved. The air smelled a bit like all hotel rooms did, clean and artificial. They wouldn't be staying long enough for it to start smelling like them, the detergent from their clothes and shampoos they used in their hair. But perhaps Light would leave the bathroom door opened tonight and the smell of his body-wash would drift into the room and make it seem like it was theirs for a short while.

"You were hiding something from me. I saw you speaking to those men again, when you said you were going to the toilet."

The hand twitched as if it was going to pull away, but then gripped the fabric of his sweater and fisted, there against his chest.

"Those same men you send to follow me around when you're not here."

He moved his head. The pillow rustled and it sounded very loud in his ears.

"It was my understanding that they were very discreet. I didn't mean to cause you any discomfort."

"Did you think I wouldn't notice them?"

The fist became an open hand. It pushed against his chest until a body rose from next to him. A slight frown that wasn't quite angry, but nevertheless sent an unpleasant buzz through him, was marring a perfect magazine-cover face.

He shifted his head again.

"They have been hired to provide you protection, should you ever need it."

The head shook, honey hair flying about. It looked lighter when viewed from this angle, and he liked it very much.

"Watch over me. Watch me. And report to you."

He smiled, but it showed the bitterness.

"I don't need men to spy on you, Light. If I want to know what you're doing I can just call you on the phone."

The honey eyes turned cold, lips drew close together causing strange lines to appear on the boyish face, making it look older. It looked hurt, this expression, and he felt another bitter sting against his ribcage. Strange little wasps, these stings of guilt. He glanced at the tea tray left on the bedside table.

"You're a bastard, and you're hiding something from me."

"Not a bastard." he raised a finger, and reached for the teacup "Only an orphan. And what I said to you is true. They are there for your protection."

A hundred questions danced in those eyes at once, but the silence stretched between his lips and the boy's and the noise from the air conditioning unit seemed louder than ever. He moved his head on the pillow. The feathers rustled. He brought the cup to his lips, but changed his mind, and returned to its former place on the tray.

Of course he could tell Light that they were there for his protection. That was the truth, even if incomplete. What he couldn't tell him was that the protection he needed was not from L's enemies, or any random criminal he may meet along the way, but from himself. That they were there to keep an eye out for any changes that might occur in L's absence, for any sign of remembrance...

_Mr. Yagami was not seen carrying any lined paper, Sir. He did not speak to himself when he was alone or make contact with any persons that are not included in the records provided by you. The search of his clothes revealed no paper of any kind, nor a list of names of any kind._

How could he tell him that what he was hiding was the files of an investigation Light could not remember the purpose of, that all his abrupt goings away for cases all over the world were but an excuse to look for the black notebook which could bring it all back, and take it all away? That what Light believed to have been a car accident which had caused him to loose his memories of that one year of his life had actually been a deal to save a murderer L had made with a god of death in exchange for a life-long chase after the damned thing? The monster had thought it would be fun, to move the notebook from one corner of the world to another, and watch L chase after it, having only the little clues he would leave to go by. And every time he was halfway across the world he would wonder if he had been wrong, if he had read the signs left for him incorrectly, and if the note would end up thrown from the sky right before Light's feet.

He had cursed himself with that deal as surely as he would have done if he had not made it that night which now seemed so long ago. In the end, whenever he held the hated black covers in his hands, waiting for the gangly figure of its keeper to appear and take it away once again, he would console himself with the thought that if he was to be cursed anyway, this was the cursed existence in which he got to keep Light. And he believed that it was what made it better by default.

He placed his hand over the one that was pushing against his chest, and pulled it so that it was standing directly over his heart.

"I like to know where you are when I'm away. What you wear, what jam you put on your toast." he smiled, and this time it showed the truth "It makes me feel like I'm there as well."

Light scoffed, but a smile broke over his own face, and a flush bloomed high on his cheekbones. He moved his eyes over the room in quick glances, and they seemed to sparkle from the light reflected from the bedside lamp. Then they returned to him, and he thought he might die from the look he saw there, colored like honey and amber, and warmed by something within. Something that loved him.

"Am I forgiven then, for my sins?" he asked smiling up at that face, which had taken on a charmingly playful expression, and fought the urge to hold it by the chin and kiss it all over until it was all pink and warm.

"Yes you are, so I will tell you. You're very lucky with your timing, you know?"

His head was plunged into the pillow when Light bent down to kiss him, and the feathers rustled almost deafeningly. But that may also have been the blood rushing through his ears.

"Lucky how?" he asked reaching for the handle of the teacup.

The mattress moved to cover the dip when Light stood up and pulled the jumper he had been wearing over his head and off.

He was already halfway to the bathroom, with L's eyes traveling the contours of his scapular bones when he said:

"As you've said, I was upset with you earlier. I put some vinegar in your tea."


End file.
